7 College Enrollment Marketing Tools for Your 2025 Strategy

The pressure is on. With the college admissions landscape in a season of tremendous change and a shrinking pool of students to reach via traditional marketing methods, college admissions and enrollment marketing staff are stressed…and that’s putting it lightly!

Step back from your day-to-day and read this blog post where we help you look at your current enrollment and admissions marketing tools (and maybe some new ones) from a different perspective.

We'll cover higher ed tools for marketing to students and families, plus internal tools for your team.

This article may be especially helpful for small colleges and universities with limited budgets.

7 Admissions Marketing Tools to Consider for 2025 (And How to Make the Most of Them)

Odds are, you’re already using a lot of these tools. Here are some ways to maximize them this academic year.

If you’re not already using them, these can be great enrollment marketing tools to consider adding to your strategy.

1. Virtual Tour Software
2. Task Management Tool
3. Email Marketing Software
4. Asynchronous Video Recording Tool
5. SEO Research Software
6. Website Chatbot
7. Webinar Hosting Tool
8. Bonus: Go Where The Students Are

1. Virtual Tour Software

This college brand-building tool has gained a ton of traction since 2020. Tours are a crucial factor in the final college decision-making process, making them a great event to revisit this year to boost enrollment numbers (especially if you haven’t touched yours since 2020 or 2021). 

Features to look out for: Mobile functionality, interactive campus maps, 360 views

Audience: Students and their families

Funnel stage: Consideration and decision (bottom of the funnel)

Key metrics to track: Tour view rate, percent of the tour watched, post-tour inquiry submissions

Ways to optimize: 

• Add in testimonials from current students
• Highlight what’s truly unique about your college
• Start sharing via email marketing, on social media, and on your school’s website

2. Task Management Tool

Say goodbye to the days of rouge sticky notes. Get on the same page with teammates and reduce meetings.

Features to look out for: Time tracking ability, communication tools with teammates, fields to organize task categories

Audience: College admissions staff (internal)

Funnel stage: All

Key metrics to track: Average tasks completed per month, workload per employee, average time to complete certain types of recurring tasks

Ways to optimize: 

• Track average time spent on tasks to help determine your high-impact tasks and better optimize workloads
• Configure goals to track progress
• Create projects for your top initiatives
• Invite your team to collaborate with you in the task management tool

3. Email Marketing Software

Okay, we know you’ve got this one. This year is a great time to try new highly targeted campaigns and do an email marketing health check-up. This article on higher education email marketing must-knows is a great resource to check out if you're looking for the latest email marketing tips for higher ed.

Features to look out for: Robust reporting, drag-and-drop editor, segmentation abilities

Audience: Students and families

Funnel stage: All

Key metrics to track: Open rate, bounce rate, click-through rate, unsubscribe rate, conversion rate

Ways to optimize: 

• Try cleaning your lists (removing bounced contacts, for instance)
• Create a new lead nurturing campaign for students at each stage in the funnel
• Revamp your email design
• Revisit your segmentation and determine how to get even more targeted with your email campaigns
• A/B test subject lines and CTAs

4. Asynchronous Video Recording Tool

Are you looking to save time on internal communication? Or, do you want to start making video content for students yourself?

This is a great option if your team's budget is too tight to fund high-production videos.

Numerous video recording tools allow you to record yourself (and/or share your screen) and send those videos to students or coworkers. Videos like these are great to add to your website, send via email marketing, or send directly to students.

Features to look out for: A large storage capacity, the ability to record yourself and your screen, the option to add your school’s branding elements

Audience: College admissions staff, students, and families

Funnel stage: All

Key metrics to track: Percent focus rate, click-through rate, post-video view form submission rate

Ways to optimize: 

Here are some questions to consider:

• Where can we add more personalization to our enrollment marketing? (Video may be the answer)
• How can we convert our written content into video?
• Which recurring internal meetings can we reduce by using asynchronous video?

5. SEO Research Software

A Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tool can help you determine which phrases students and families search for on Google to find colleges like yours.

Psst…you may not need to buy one. Google Search Console is free for everyone. Plus, there are many free resources out there to teach you about SEO. 

Features to look out for: Keyword management, keyword search, content optimization ideas

Audience: Students and families

Funnel stage: All

Key metrics to track: Website traffic, organic traffic, keyword rankings, keywords your domain and your competitors are ranking for

Ways to optimize: 

• Update the content you already have (How can you make it more helpful and evergreen?)
• Determine gaps in content strategy
• Discover commonly asked questions and create content to answer those questions

6. Website Chatbot

Chatbots are a great way to answer questions and address inquiries quickly. 

Your CRM or marketing automation software may allow this, or you could go with another vendor. 

Features to look out for: AI functionality, the option to speak with a bot or real person

Audience: Students and families

Funnel stage: All

Key metrics to track: Engagement rate, percent progression through chatbot steps and phases, conversion rate

Ways to optimize: 

• Branding (How can you give our chatbot our unique voice?)
• Chatbot pathways (How can you make the potential chatbot paths more helpful?)

7. Webinar Hosting Tool

Ah, yes. It's a marketing classic. And for a reason!

Webinars can be a great way to interact with prospective students and help them get to know your school’s culture (plus learn the answers to any FAQs they may have).

Features to look out for: Ability to prerecord webinars, simple registration flow, automatic reminder emails

Audience: Students and families

Funnel stage: Consideration and decision (bottom of the funnel)

Key metrics to track: Engagement rate, focus rate during the event (time spent watching), attendance rate

Ways to optimize: 

• Analyze past webinar performance and determine which dates and times work best
• Convert your webinars into podcasts, blog posts, and social content

Bonus: Go Where The Students Are

If you’re looking for a new, high-impact enrollment marketing tool, we think Scoir is worth a look! 😉

Scoir is the place where students do all things college search and planning. Every college has a profile on Scoir, similar to a social media profile. When you become a Scoir partner, you can take your profile to the next level, message students who follow your school on Scoir, and see insights about those who follow you.

Our college partners find that 52-90% of their interested students on Scoir are stealth (meaning, the students weren’t already captured in their CRM)!

Check out what we’re all about, view our case studies, or schedule a consultation to get started.

This article was originally published on April 22, 2024. It was updated on January 8, 2025 for accuracy and comprehensiveness.